The problem of mobile phones being smuggled into a Doncaster prison has been laid bare, after it was revealed that inmates there were able to get their hands on more than 700 phones in one year.

Figures from a Freedom of Information request have revealed how a total of 736 phones were seized at HMP Doncaster during 2015.

Figures from a Freedom of Information request have revealed how a total of 736 phones were seized at HMP Doncaster during 2015.

The private men’s prison was the third worse offender for the number of phones seized, beaten only by HMP Altcourse in Liverpool where 1,000 phones were confiscated and HMP Hewell in Worcestershire with 817.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “We are determined to do all we can to prevent prisoners having access to mobile phones and we are stepping up measures to find and block them.

"It is a criminal offence to bring a mobile into prison, or transmit sounds or images from within a prison using a mobile phone.

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"Legislation has been introduced to allow prisons to use signal-denying technology to suppress the use of wireless telegraphy such as mobile phones by prisoners.

"Further legislation has been introduced to allow us to apply for a compel mobile network operators to disconnect illicit mobile phones being used in a prison.”

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